Saturday, March 9, 2013

Day 1 at Indian Wells

What a great day today at the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells. It was my first of four days to visit this amazing tournament, for the third year in a row. We got there later than planned due to the incredible volume of people who were also heading to the site. By the time we got in there and looked at the practice board I realized that Roger Federer was already on the practice court right next to me. Here are some of the pictures my friend and I took:

Roger looked as relaxed as ever and it was awesome to see him practice live. He was hitting with American Steve Johnson, just for about half an hour. We then watched a bit of the second set where Verdasco got beaten badly by Nieminen, a bit of Stosur, watched Isner unfortunately lose to Hewitt, and then the highlight of the day, Roger playing Dennis Istomin. While we were quite high up in the stadium for this match there are no bad seats and we really got a good view of the amazing tennis Roger was playing. He was definitely on his game, getting a break in the very first game. It seemed there was no shot he couldn't do and I was reminded once again that there are some things that just can't be captured on TV, things that are just much more prominent in person - things like the way he moves around court, and the snap of his wrist and the whip of his arm on his forehand. Of course we see these aspects of his game every time we watch him but it's somehow all the more impressive watching in person. Here are a few of the pictures my friend took from the match (she's much better at photography than I am):

Tomorrow I hope to watch Fed practice again and we will catch as many as we can of the great matches going on around the grounds. But I will be waiting for Monday to come when I can watch Roger play his match again, not against one of his new challenges, Benneteau, but instead against Dodig, who took out Benneteau in straight sets. I am hoping for a much closer view for this match but will need to wait to see if he plays the day or evening schedule. Until then, I hope you enjoyed the up close and personal views and I will check back in in a couple of days.